>> she was a girl then too. solving the mysteries became her mission. >> so how many names did you hit? >> about 2,300 names. >> could cutting edge technology crack an ice cold case? >> you know, it's like, no way. >> i believe in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil i think they're in for a big surprise. >> hello, welcome to "dateline." michellea and jenny were like most kids their age. they loved to ride bikes and playing outdoors, and they didn't know each other but they'd be forever put together in tragedy. in the process, there was a twist uncovered that left investigators speechless. here is keith morrison with "evil was watching." >> again and again, she came here. stood under the ancient canopy. walked the damp, narrow paths to the places the killer used to hide what he had done as if looking once more after all these years would tell her something. as if the dense undergrowth would part and finally reveal the name. it's so peaceful here. it's not the kind of place you would associate with violent crime, that's for sure. >> no. no. nothing like this has ever happened at this park before. >> lindsey wait was just 11 years old. that terrible summer in tacoma, washington. >> i just remember that it was really scary to me as a young girl. it was really scary not just for me, but for everybody. >> and the questions about that place and that summer followed her. up through the ranks of the tacoma police department until as detective lindsey wait, she came here to westal with something like an obsession. a mystery that laid dormant for more than three decades. a story that can finally be told. it was march 1986. things were finally looking up for barbara leonard. hadn't been easy, she said, after her husband left her to raise three girls alone. but here in tacoma, barbara had at last found a good job, a home and prospects. >> i was working in a real estate office and i had just bought a house in the north end of tacoma. i scraped and saved money. >> even a little extra to sign up her daughters for piano lessons. the youngest was nicole, angela in the middle and the eldest was michellea. >> she was almost 13. kids at that age want to be a little bit more independent. >> it was spring break so michellea begged her mom -- >> she wanted to go to the park with her sisters and be there before the piano lesson. >> puget park, just across the street from their lessons. a couple of miles from home. michellea's sisters will never forget that day. >> for like half an hour, but we went 2 1/2 hours. >> freedom. they rode their bikes to the park, where they realized they had forgotten their lunches at home. >> michellea is like i'll grab them and come back. and in the meantime we had too go to the bathroom. >> there's no bathroom at the playground back then. >> yeah. >> so where'd you go? >> we went down the street. >> it took a while and when they got back, michellea should have been there too but she wasn't. >> her bike was there. it was locked and we started looking. >> we have this family call and it echoes just far and wide and so we -- >> what's the family call? >> woo. >> okay. >> so we yoo-hooed for her and we didn't hear anything. >> that's when it happened. when the cold fear flooded their bodies. >> and like at that moment i knew. >> knew what? >> i just knew something had happened. >> it was wrong. it was very wrong. >> very wrong. >> i left work, i remember that day and i was praying i wouldn't get a speeding ticket but i was probably doing 70 miles an hour on the little road. >> do you remember what that was like? >> it was terrifying. >> you're hoping you're going to see the kid come walking around the corner. >> jim miller was at the tacoma police. >> there's a little dread that goes with a little girl missing like that. >> any time a child goes missing it's a scary thing. >> where was michellea? the police looked, of course. but as the hours ticked by, my god. there's nothing. >> it was an emptiness there. just time kind of stands still. >> yeah. >> and then it's all of a sudden, it's gone. i mean -- so it was dark. they said we're going to call in search and rescue. because we haven't found her. >> it was late when they took search dogs into a nearby overgrown gulch and then -- >> i was in one of the police cars and they told me that they had found her body. when you say found her body, it's not the person. it's terrible. sorry. >> they found her near a make-shift fire pit. she had been beaten and sexual assaulted, her throat cut. >> it's this sickening feeling that just overtakes you and life is never going to be the same as you know it. >> i think that it does one or two things to you. it's going to either you up or motivate you to find the bad guy. >> day after day, they searched for the killer. all that dismal spring. one of her classmates said she saw a man in the park looking at the girls. they made a sketch and tips flooded in. one of them seemed especially worriso worrisome. a man jogging said he had seen a guy in a different park a few miles away. scouting his next victim? fear gripped the city. though for barbara it felt more like rage. she got a gun permit, kept a gun in her car. >> i'd go pull up at a stop light and i remember looking over and there was a man in the car and i was thinking, could you have done this, did you do this because they had no clues for months and months. it was a fog, you're living in a fog. >> then it was summer, five months had passed. >> august that year was fabulous in the pacific northwest. and i woke up a little late. jenny woke up a little late. >> just the two of them. patty pastian and her 13-year-old jenny. >> and we were sitting in the dining room on the floor in front of the patio doors, bathing ourselves in the sun. we were talking. all about upcoming camp. all about what she'd do the rest of the day. we just visited. it's not something we regularly did. we just did it that day. i think we needed to. >> the moment in time so treasured and so terribly fleeting. coming up -- >> there was a knock on the front door. it's somebody with the police department. >> another missing girl. another anguished family. another awful search. >> there were literally hundreds of people looking through the park for her. >> everybody wanted to find jenny. >> when "dateline" continues. broken windshield... take 1... hey guys, my windshield just got broken, i feel like i need to blow off some steam. let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom, yeah! geico. great service without all the drama. our most advanced formularonamel repair. helps you brush in vital minerals to actively repair and strengthen enamel. so you don't just brush to clean, you brush to build. pronamel intensive enamel repair. here's to the duers. to all the people who realize they can du more with less asthma thanks to dupixent, the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. if your financial situation has changed, who invented we're car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. it was summer 1986. the sun-kissed morning. a few miles from the park where they had found michella's body, jenni, a blonde, blue eyed dynamo. >> if there was a bat she had it in her hand. >> jenni was 13. she had a brand-new schwinn bicycle. she was preparing for an imminent bike tour. >> she wanted to master the bike. she didn't want anybody to be waiting for her. she wanted to have the stamina to keep up. >> she planned a training ride with the friend. the friend backed out, and so that sunny day, august 4th -- >> jenni called her dad for permission to do the bike by herself. >> he said yes. but be home by dinner. >> pd stands for point defiance. tacoma's huge and loved urban forest park. jenni's oldest sister teresa 15 at the time worked at day camp there. >> it's majestic. all of the words of the poets don't begin to describe the primeval forest, it is beautiful. >> the five mile park was well marked. jenni left from her shift at the store about 40 minutes away. >> and then the day just becomes like any other day. until a phone call comes in the evening. it's my husband saying that i need to come home. >> jenni was hours late. patty heard the fear in her husband's voice. she drove home, terrified. police were looking in the park, told her stay home and wait. >> and then about 11:00 or so at night, there was a knock on the front door. it's somebody with the police department with the blood hounds. >> oh, boy. >> they want a piece of jennifer's clothing, something they can get a scent off of. >> they didn't find jenni that night. or the next day. tacoma police called point defiance park for three days. hundreds of people joined the search. nbc affiliate king-5 covered it. jenni's sister pleaded for help. >> take time to think back, sit down and remember. any little bit would help. >> meanwhile, the police worked the angles. was it a kidnapping? >> maybe they'd ask for ransom. we didn't know. >> or maybe jenni was lost or got hurt. >> there were literally hundreds of people looking through the park for her. >> everybody wanted to find jenni. >> gene miller helped run down hundreds of suspected sightings. >> there was a lot of good-faith effort on the part of citizens to call in and say i think i saw her her, i think i saw her there. >> patty waited, still hoping her jenni would walk right in the door. she was at home when she got a visit from another mother, barbara, michella's mom, there to offer support. >> just seemed like the thing to. >> she was very, very sweet. very nice. i said thank you. she left. and i said to a friend who was sitting there, i'm not sure why she came. jennifer's not dead. >> you represented the outcome she desperately did not want to happen. >> exactly. exactly. and she didn't want that to be her realty. >> but was it? it seemed like all of tacoma feared the worst. >> after about -- i don't know, 20 days, i decided i needed to do something besides hang out in the back yard drinking coffee. >> yeah. >> and i decided to paint the dining room. i don't know. >> and that's where she was when the detective arrived. >> took the brusher roller out of my hand, sat and helped me down the ladder. sat me on the chair in the dining room and said, we found her. >> today's date is august 29th. >> this is police video from the next day. they had found jenni in a thickly wooded spot near a narrow footpath. she had been sexually assaulted and strangled and her killer had hidden her body and her new schwinn bicycle and a second mother learned all about permanent heart break. have you let your mind go to what probably happened to her that day? >> i have my theory i think. i'll just live with it. she was riding her bike. the monster came out of the woods and grabbed her. and killed her. more than that, i can't wrap my brain around. >> yeah. twice in five months. and the victims, very similar. >> blonde, blue eyed, riding a bike in a city park. >> and after, kids in tacoma lost the freedom to roam around, just like that. turned on a dime. >> yeah. we couldn't go down to the street and play with our friends anymore. >> chaperoned everywhere. >> yeah. >> because there was evil out there, a man, a monster who needed to be found. everybody it seemed wanted to help the police. >> at one point, i think we were up to nine or ten binders full of just tips and it was everything from i saw a strange person in the park that day to my neighbor has got issues. >> police released another sketch of a possible suspect. a man in his 20s wearing mirrored sunglasses. that tip led to the man who drove this van. >> he was familiar with the park. they took a good hard look at him. but -- >> dead end. >> there were many dead ends that year. and in the years that followed. the police collected all of the evidence they could, but really there was only so much they could do. the science of dna was in its infancy. and eventually, the murders of jenni and michella went cold. >> it changed the way people thought of other people. when the bad guy is still out there and when you don't know who the bad guy is. >> the whole town kind of carries it around. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> miller carried it around too. for two decades. and then he met a young detective who was just a kid that summer of 1986. but did she remember? yes, she did. coming up -- >> it definitely scared the heck out of me. >> another detective joins the case and after all these years old evidence is about to yield a new clue. >> it was a shocker. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues w how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. it's time to start a new day. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. 2020's done ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie. oh, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. lindsey wade wasn't friends with michella or jenni, but she certainly could have been. >> i definitely -- i guess identified with a little girl out riding her bicycle. >> oh, sure. she was 11 years old back then in the summer of 1986. and because she lived in tacoma, of course she heard about those girls, just like her, how they had been snatched in broad daylight and murdered. >> it definitely scared the heck out of me. >> yeah. >> there would be certain times where if i was out riding my bike or if i was walking, it would be something that i would think about. >> the layer of that glossy childhood varnish stripped away. >> probably for first time it made us recognize there's really bad people out there. >> it takes away a little innocence. >> yeah. definitely. >> she got to thinking about bad people. in high school she read a book about the notorious serial killer, ted bundy. >> he was from there. >> yeah. from tacoma. i was fascinated by the book and terrified at the same time. and i just decided that that's what i wanted to do for a living, i wanted to catch people like him. >> but even after she joined the tacoma police department and earned her way through patrol and narcotics and sex crimes, she never forgot about jenni and michella. and the summer of '86. >> i would have a suspect that i was working and i would wonder, okay, could this guy be responsible? >> the mystery kept its grip on gene miller too. inspired him to start a cold case unit here. >> i mean, things have changed dramatically in how cases are investigated. there's so much more that could be done. >> eventually in 2013, detective wade joined him, eager to dig into the case of michella and jenni. binders and binders of police reports and interviews and leads, 27 years of dead ends. and point defiance like a giant ever present question. >> so her bicycle was back here in this area. and it was lying on its side. the suspect had taken some of these fern fronds and ripped them out and then laid them across the top of the bike to camouflage it. >> and further down the path, deeper into the woods, where they found jenni. hid up from view. >> very hidden. >> they found her body in a shelter of sorts. >> one of the original detectives actually described it as something like an igloo almost. like a cave. that was made out of the vegetation. >> what do you get out of being at the place where she was found? >> for me, as an investigator, it was important for me to come out here and actually see it, to try to understand a little bit better what happened and try to get myself into the mindset of the killer. i mean, there were days when i would get frustrated sitting in my office working on the case and i'd drive my car and sit down here hoping that something would come to mind. >> one thing that did come to mind -- assembling a list of all the names in those binders, persons of interest, witnesses, any male who had intersected with the original investigation. so how many names did you have? >> about 2,300 names. >> that's a lot of names. >> yes. my working theory at that time was this guy has got to be somebody who's been convicted of a sex crime or another murder and somehow he slipped through the cracks. >> back in 1986 investigators had recovered semen from michella's body. but when that semen was tested years later, it didn't match anyone in the fbi's national dna database known as codis. they didn't have any dna from jenni's body, though they did still have the swimsuit she had been wearing that day so detective wade sent that out for testing. >> when the crime lab looked at the swimsuit, they found semen in the crotch of her swimsuit. >> for decades, everyone believed the same man murdered both girls. and now finally they had a way to prove it. but when they compared the two dna samples -- >> it was a shocker. coming up -- >> i was absolutely dumb founded. >> a revelation is about to change the case. >> all this time, you're looking for one thing and it's actually something else. >> mm-hmm. but now we had a new lead. >> they would get a cutting edge new clue. >> i thought well, i'll give it a shot. >> when "dateline" continues. i a shot. >> when "dateline" continues with our almond trees in our blue diamond orchard in california. my parents' job is to look after them. and it's my job to test the product. the best almonds make the best almondmilk. blue diamond almond breeze. special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressive's home quote explorer. international hand model jon-jon gets personal. your wayward pinky is grotesque. then a high stakes patty-cake battle royale ends in triumph. you have the upper hands! it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. only on "the upper hands." it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! 2020's done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com up to one million dollarsx in new scholarships through this month, because hope fuels opportunity. see what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix.edu hello, here's what's happening. the u.s. kicked off the new year by reaching the 20 millionth confirmed case of coronavirus. florida's become the third state to confirm a case of that new variant that was first discovered in uk. new york's times square was nearly empty as the big apple rang in 2021 with the famous ball drop. just a few invited guests including frontline workers and vips were invited to watch the event. back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. lindsey wade was just 11 years old when two young girls in her hometown were murdered within a matter of months. as the years passed, wade's obsession with cases grew. now she was a detective and hoped advances in dna technology would her unmask the killer. but what she was about to learn would completely transform the investigation. here again is keith morrison with "evil was watching." >> michella was so fierce. there wasn't anything that intimidated her at all. she just took life head on. >> it never left them. the spirit that was their sister followed them all and their growing up years and when they had families of their own. and they knew, always did, that their mom had lost a piece of herself. >> we all together as family -- in the family environment and then this closing would come down on her. >> she'd just bawl. >> yeah. we want mom back. >> the mystery of who killed michella and jenni haunted two families for nearly 30 years. all they knew or thought they knew was that some unknown man assaulted and killed those little girls. this man who had killed once had killed again. >> absolutely. there couldn't be two monsters in tacoma. >> but they were wrong. dna doesn't lie. and the male dna found on jenni's swimsuit, did it match the other case? >> no. >> there wasn't just one killer. there were two. >> i was absolutely dumb founded. >> yeah. >> i don't think i could speak. >> i was like no way. >> i think we were all -- we had to take a moment. >> sure. >> to regroup. >> because all this time you're looking for one thing and it's actually something else. >> but it was exciting at the same time, because we had a new lead. >> the dna from jenni's swimsuit, when they entered that in the database, no match. once again they were back where they started. >> you're in hurry up and wait mode. you're waiting for your offender to get their dna in the database because of a conviction or whatever. that could be a long wait. >> in 2014, gene miller retired, leaving detective wade in charge of the cold case unit. and she had a new helper. jenni's mom, patty. 29 years after her daughter's murder. >> my career was winding down. i thought i should probably do something. and so i volunteered to help. >> patty wasn't allowed to touch the two girls' murder files but she could in help other ways. >> we just hit it off. she was so supportive and so positive and just volunteered for anything she could do to help us to make our jobs easier. >> around then, detective wade tried to do something new with the crime scene dna. she consulted this woman, dr. colleen fitzpatrick. an expert in something called forensic genealogy. >> you know, in an informal sense it's been referred to as csi meets roots. >> maybe you have taken a home dna test. you can sometimes track down distant relatives by uploading your dna profile to public genealogy websites. dr. fitzpatrick searches all that dna data to find not necessarily matches, but telling similarities. >> it's really the first big development in human identification i think in years, in 20 years. >> her method in linking an unknown dna to possible relatives and therefore possible last names. detective wade was skeptical at first. >> it kind of sounded like smoke and mirrors to me, but i thought well, i'm going to give it a shot. i want to solve this case. >> she sent dr. fitzpatrick the two dna's from jenni's and michella's crime scene. >> she entered into her genealogy databases. >> there were no exact matches but there were some possible family names. >> i certainly, you know, dug into the names and there wasn't anybody who jumped off the page. >> the only name that seemed remotely interesting was washburn because there was a guy by that name in the case file but he wasn't a suspect. he was a witness. he was the jogger who told police he saw someone in point defiance park who resembled the sketch of michella's killer. but even more confusing, the genealogy research had linked the dna to jenni's murder, which happened months after washburn phoned in that tip about michella. so it was all just a fluke probably. >> and so it was something that i kept in the back of my mind as we continued on with the investigation. >> she also went to a company called par abonn that turn dna profiles into computer identified images showing what the suspect probably looked like. in 2016, armed with those snapshots -- >> these two are solvable. >> the tacoma police department told the public they were searching for two killers. and needed help to find them. jenni's sister teresa was hopeful. >> i didn't know exactly where it was going to end up but i knew it was a big step in the case. >> we had a tip line open. we got multiple tips on the same person because he actually looked so much like the sketch. >> but when they checked him out, they eliminated him as a suspect. so much for new approaches. detective wade once again looked at the huge list she had made, 2,300 men connected to the new cases. >> there were several hundred that really did stand out because they did have documented history for violence and sexual assault. >> so she set out to collect the dna of those men. she called them high-priority suspects. she also included one guy who wasn't a suspect at all. the witness, washburn. and though they were scattered all over the country, with the fbi's help one by one she tracked them down. >> we asked people, we knocked on the door literally told well we were investigating a cold case, and you know, we'd like to eliminate you as a possible suspect, would you give it your dna. we had in total about 160 people that we got dna samples from. >> 160 samples. they all needed to be compared with the dna samples from the two crime scenes. easier said than done. it isn't like the movies. this would take months. no idea if any of it would pay off. coming up -- >> so first batch goes out, none of these guys are a match. then i sent the next batch out. it's the same thing. >> weeks, months, a year of dead ends. then came the phone call. >> it was like, no way. >> when "dateline" continues. introducing a revolution in the world of pain relief: new advil dual action. advil targets pain at the source. acetaminophen blocks pain signals. new advil dual action with acetaminophen. our great street, huge yard. there is a bit of an issue with our neighbors fencing. neighbor 1: allez! (sound from wind chimes) neighbor 2: (laughing) at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. which helps us save even more. neighbor 2: hey, sarah, hey, peter! neighbor 1: touché. neighbor 2: ahhh! neighbor 1: pret! neighbor 2: en garde! for bundling made easy, go to geico.com 2020's done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com four more seasons came and went in tacoma, washington. as so methodically in batches of 20, detective lindsey wade sent her collected samples of dna to the lab. dna taken from 1 60 men, looking for two killers. >> first batch goes out there. i wait months, months and months and then, you know, get a report back that none of these guys are a match. and then i sent the next batch out, it's the same thing. it was really frustrating because there were some people that looked like fantastic suspects up until the point they were eliminated. >> a year of dna tests and not a single match. it was enough to wear any detective down. even one as passionate as lindsey wade. but she had given her best, but now she made a tough decision. >> it was time for me to move on. >> in the spring of 2018, lindsey wade retired from the tacoma pd. >> working on cold cases is typically more frustrating than rewarding because you can work and work and work and work and do a ton of investigation and come up with zero. >> and then walk away. >> yeah. >> she'd investigated both michella and jenni's cases for years and saying good-bye wasn't easy, especially to jenni's mom. >> by that time you had grown pretty close to patty. >> yeah. >> she's a very special gal. i told her mother i'm going to adopt her. >> before she left, wade sent one last small batch of samples to the dna lab. no point really in waiting for the results. >> we're down to the last 18, i'm doubtful that we're going to get a match. >> so she said good-bye and went on with her life, and 25 days later -- >> my phone buzzed and i looked at it. >> it was her replacement on the cold case unit. >> i answered the phone and he said, there's a match on jennifer bastian. i asked who is it, what's the name? >> uh-huh. >> and he said, robert washburn. and i was like, no way. i knew exactly who it was. but i just couldn't believe it. >> robert washburn. he was the guy who phoned in a tip about michella's murder. he was never a suspect. on her short list, only because of that genealogy analysis. why did washburn's name end up on the list to be tested for dna? >> because of his last name. >> just the last name? >> yes. >> because he was in that list that was sent to you? >> correct. >> at the time it seemed like a coincidence, a fluke, but now here it was, no doubt. robert washburn's dna on jenni bastian's swimsuit. it was head spinning. >> he was not a high priority suspect. >> he certainly hadn't acted like one. they learned that in the years after the murder/rape of jenni bastian, robert washburn just blended into middle america, literally. he moved to illinois. he got a job, paid his taxes, stayed out of trouble. in fact, when investigators came knocking at his door, he voluntarily gave them a dna sample. now more than three decades after that terrible day in the park, washburn was arrested at home and then the new detective spoke with him. how did he react? >> he was scared. he was very nervous, sweating. he asked me is this about that swab i gave the fbi a year ago? and then he told me i didn't kill that little girl. >> with washburn in handcuffs, it was time to let jenni's mom know and that job went to retired detective wade. >> so of course i had rehearsed what i was going to say and it all went out the window by the time i got there. i couldn't remember what i was going to say. >> she walked in, i could tell she has been crying. and she said -- >> we got him. and that's really all i could say. >> the next thing we were doing is crying and hugging each other. >> yeah. >> after 32 years, jenni's alleged killer was finally in custody. but what about michella's murderer? his identity was still a mystery. of the 160 men whose dna was tested, none matched. did you get to the point where you thought this is just -- just live with this, never going to be solved? >> yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> whether it was solved or not wasn't ever going to bring her back. but i did not ever want that to happen to other children. so in my mind, it would be a great idea to find this guy. >> remember back in 2016, parabonn made a sketch based on the suspect's dna, but didn't lead to the suspect. so in 2018 the company decided to try a newer, more advanced version of forensic genealogy. and what do you know? coming up -- >> how could you find somebody, how could somebody still be out there? >> one mother still seeking answers and one more phone call from out of the blue. >> i believe in the devil. and people that don't believe in the devil i think they're in for a big surprise. >> when "dateline" continues. abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. if your fin2020's doneation has changed, a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com welcome back. for more than 30 years the tacoma police worked every angle to solve the murders of two little girls. horrific crimes that shook the city to the core and yet jenni and michella's case files passed through three generations of detectives before forensics gave them their first big break. now jenni's suspected killer was behind bars and investigators were determined that michella's would be next. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "evil was watching." >> it's a hole, it's a big hole that nothing else can fit. no amount of comfort. >> the loss of her daughter michella hit barbara leonard like one of the sufferings of job. and the grief -- >> there's never an end to it and there won't be, i don't think, until i see her again and i have that hope and promise. the bible is true and the bible says that the dead are sleeping, they will be resurrected. >> that's where you find your comfort? >> of course it is. that's how i have been able to maintain a relationship and understand other people's pain. >> of course, barbara was glad for the bastian family when she heard there was an arrest in may of 2018, but she knew it wouldn't shed any light on michella's murder. >> it was two different people, two different distinct persons. >> maybe they'd solve the other case but not yours. >> yeah. >> so it seemed for 40 days and 40 nights until june 20, 2018 when barbara's phone rang. >> police chief calls and says, we have apprehended the man we feel is responsible for your daughter's murder. >> after 32 years. the breakthrough was once again geneo logical dna. >> through this process two brothers were identified. >> detective steve told how he is shadowed one of the brothers to the restaurant where he got lucky. >> i observed him using the napkin multiple times and i was able to collect it and get that submitted to the lab. >> and it was a match. >> it was surreal because after all this time how could you find somebody? how could somebody still be out there? >> michella's alleged killer, 67-year-old gary hartman, was a nurse of all things in a psychiatric hospital. a working-class guy with no history of violent crime. just like robert washburn. >> i believe in the devil. i believe fully in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil i think they're in for a big surprise. >> barbara leonard and her daughters were in court the day that hartman was charged with her daughter's murder. >> i thought who is this person? how could someone that looked so normal do something like this? >> hartman pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. his trial is still pending. his attorney sent us a letter which reads in part, the defense is pursuing various investigative leads. i ask the public to accord mr. hardman the presumption of innocence to why he's entitled. washburn, the suspect in jenni bastian's murder was back in court. this was the final step in the plea deal. >> how do you plead? >> guilty. >> washburn pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. he was sentenced to 27 years in prison. >> i had prayed that he would not go to trial. i just wanted it to be over. >> as part of the plea agreement, washburn had to tell the court about the murder. in a statement read by the judge, he said he grabbed jenni by the arm, brought her into the woods and strangled her. and that was it. which for patty bastian was not enough at all. >> i always had the question in my head. so you woke up on august 4th, it was a beautiful, sunny day. you went to the park. did you intend to kill a little girl? why? why did you do this? did you know what you did? do you know how many birthdays she missed? how many christmases? how many smiles, how many laughs? >> do you have any expectation that he's going to answer that why question or any hope that he will? >> yes. yes. and the reason for that is not for me. the reason is for future. to help psychologists, parents, detectives, understand what can be in a human being. what made him this person. >> also, why did washburn call in the tip about michella's murder months before he killed jenni? >> that's another question we would all like to know the answer to. >> would he have been planning it all that time? >> i don't know. >> watching for somebody? >> certainly possible. >> after 32 years, jenni's case had finally ended. but the bastian/wade partnership had not. they joined forces to get a bill passed in washington that expands dna collection and makes sure it gets into the national registry right away. it is called jennifer and michella's law. what would it mean to you to have such a law named after your daughter? >> it would be great. it would be terrific. to memorialize these two girls that did not deserve this. >> in may, 2019, washington governor jay inslee signed that law into effect. two little girls, two innocents, riding their bikes through a park on a sunny day. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. good morning. happy new year. i'm lindsey riser. the hope that comes with 2021 is being met with a sobering dose of reality this morning. there are now more than 20 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the united states. and more than 346,000 people have died as states struggle to quickly get shots into arms. this as florida becomes the third state to record a case of that more infectious mutant form first detected in the uk. speaking of the uk, a shift